Surprise SNOW!

A monster blizzard dumps 10-20 inches and impacts over 30 states!

I don't know what's worse; our latest storm's unpredictability, Des Moines traffic in the snow, or my ice fishing chances now that a blanket of powder is insulating the ice.

A train of snowflakes over 1,000 miles long wrapped around this storm.

Snow insulates ice, allowing it to warm up and thin from below. So it appears my opportunities for ice fishing are beginning to slip away with every falling flake... and they just keep on falling don't they?

A heavy axis of 8" to 10" fell in central Iowa. Impressive.

Tuesday morning, the heavy snow swath shifted over 90 miles northwest blanketing unsuspecting parts of central Iowa with a heavy winter storm! Central Iowa packed on 6" to 12" of snowfall with a surprise left turn from the February 26th - 27th Blizzard.

Tuesday morning's snow forecast from a model = worthless.

While Iowa didn't see blizzard conditions, some folks picked up 10"-16". This storm's last minute moves surprised forecasters like myself. To make matters worse, the computer models that help us with snowfall predictions were useless and misleading. This all just makes me want to go ice fishing, but now I have shoveling to do...

Ice was 5 to 6 inches thick.

One week ago, I was able to get out on the ice in central Iowa with my neighbor. The edges of the pond had been shredded by wind and warmth, but further out on the ice burg, there was 5.5" of clear ice and we caught a few fish. The ice looked stressed and the overall thickness was borderline for me.

Wind and warm... bad for ice. Imagine this, covered up by snow.

Since then, temperatures have been averaging below freezing. Ice conditions in central Iowa have probably maintained, but I wont fish that pond again until ice-out. The new snow blanket makes it hard to see the quality of our thinning ice and the weight of two heavy snows in a weak will stress the ice. This will create dangerous conditions for central Iowa anglers, so please be careful if you decide to hit the hard water.



If there's one good thing about the tiny, white, hellions that wont seem to stop falling from the sky... they are quite pretty. You'll have to take a break from snow blowing and shoveling and look at the flakes up close. Colder temps and more moisture produce the biggest flakes, and their shape is highly dependent on the temperature of the clouds that created them. One thing's for sure, this latest storm had the perfect snow-making conditions.

Chart provided by Cal-Tech.

So while you're cleaning up the sidewalk, I'll mop up the mess in the Weather Center. We'll get the next one right ;-) Feel free to give me hard time if you see me at the Whitetail Classic. That's March 1st through March 3rd at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines.

Be safe and enjoy the snow!